I said Peter Hain was due some more slapping, and I was right, but I hadn't anticipated that he had messed up quite as badly as he has.The fact that opposition parties are calling for his resignation is irrelevant; if a government minister blows his or her nose out of turn the opposition call for his or her resignation. It's just opposition scalp-hunting, so let's forget about that.What I hadn't anticipated is that some of the donations to Hain's deputy leadership campaign came via a third party in the same way as David Abrahams's donations did. In Hain's case, two people who donated money to a think-tank were not told that the money would be used to fund Hain's campaign, although they both say they didn't mind.Doesn't matter whether they minded or not. It was against the law.Whether this comes to anything remains to be seen, but it's already caused damage to Hain's credibility which will take some pretty fancy footwork to repair. I understand the police are getting ready to make some arrests relating to the Abrahams donations. For the neutral observer, watching this from afar, this is a rather interesting circus. For those of us who expected so much more from this absolute shower it's nothing more than a tragedy.I'm sick of the Labour government. I'm sick of them wheeling and dealing and lying to the people who elected them. They're no better than Archer and Aitken, who thought that because they were powerful they could do anything they fucking well wanted and nobody could touch them for it.I'm disgusted with the lot of them.

I'm sure that from their point of view (and ours), its worse. Archer and Aitken were deliberately unlawful and nasty. These guys are just incompetent, and nobody wants to be known as an incompetent. Especically if you are trying to pretend to run the country.

I know a lot about incompetence- many people at work are incompetent, and I stray towards it myself sometimes.

I'd agree with you about the incompetence, and it's doing my head in, but Archer and Aitken fell because of simple arrogance. They were members of the ruling class and nothing they did could be wrong.I don't know if I've told this story here before, but years ago I was despatched to report on a Scottish tourism expo at the QEII Hall in Westminster. I was a little early for the start of the press preview, so I stooged around outside for a while having a ciggie, and while I did Archer came out of the Hall.And he was beautiful. His suit cost more than my annual salary, his shoes were handmade, his haircut was a miracle. He stepped out of the hall and he walked away as if he owned the pavement he was walking on. I watched him walk away and I was completely captivated by the easy assumption of power in his body language. I'd never seen that before. And I consoled myself with the fact that Archer is a good foot shorter than I am. I thought, `You may be one of the people who run the country, but I'll always be taller than you.'In comparison, I also walked past Aitken on Victoria Street during his trial, and I never saw anyone who looked so worried.Since then, I've met some MPs and some Lords and I've passed the time of day with Black Rod, and in none of them have I detected anything like the easy arrogance I saw in Archer that day. John Reid came close, but it wasn't the arrogance of the ruling classes, it was more, `I can take all of you and actually I'd enjoy it because you're all scum.'

Ahh, but it is offical doctrine that we don't have a ruling class these days. But since it's the best name for them, I shall carry on using it. One of the reasons for membership of one of the societies I am with is I get to hobnob with rich titled people. By doing so I can appreciate that they exist in a different sphere from us plebs, and also they are just as stupid as we are. Access to more money and connections than us just gives them more power and better information than us, classic asymetry which they use to their advantage.